Ten Apollo Spinoffs

Okay, it's June 21 - but 40 years ago, the first men on the moon were still there this day (they didn't go back into the lunar module until just after midnight Central Standard Time). So here, in no particular order, are ten products or technologies resulting from the Apollo program:

1. flame-resistant polymer textiles that protect firefighters and soldiers
2. freeze-dried foods that preserve nutrients and increase shelf life
3. life support systems that filter and purify water
4. reflective materials that insulate homes and buildings
5. fluid recycling methods that simplify kidney dialysis
6. Teflon-coated fiberglass used in "green" buildings
7. metal-bonded polyurethane foam insulation protects the Alaskan pipeline
8. space suit technologies modernize athletic shoes
9. cardiovascular conditioning equipment
10. cool suits that kept Apollo astronauts comfortable during moon walks are today worn by race car drivers, nuclear reactor technicians, shipyard workers, and people with certain illnesses

For more information, see NASA Spinoffs and The Benefits of Space Exploration.

Man on the Moon

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. I was twelve years old back then, and I remember huddling around the TV with my parents and siblings at our Houston home, watching the ghostly images on the grainy black-and-white video. Amazingly, NASA taped over the original video transmissions, but it’s been restored from a number of sources, including CBS videos – you can hear late anchorman Walter Cronkite in the background:

"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

These were the first words spoken on the surface of the moon, by Neil Armstrong after the lunar landing module (nicknamed the Eagle) touched down at 5:17 PM (Central Standard Time) July 20, 1969. With dozens of cousins in Chicago and New York, I remember it felt special that the first word spoken in the "stark beauty" of the “magnificent desolation” of the moon was that of my Texas hometown.

About 5½ hours later, at 9:56 p.m, Armstrong stepped off the lunar module onto the surface of the moon, with the famous words: "That's one small step for [a] man. ... One giant leap for mankind."

(And yes, there was an “a” in there.)

The Dick Smith Library has a display through the end of August on this 40th anniversary (outer lobby) as well as the 50th anniversary of the creation of NASA (inner lobby).

Crap Detection 101

Hello, Dear Learners!

In Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969), Neil Postman begins by quoting Hemingway from an earlier interview as saying that the one essential ingredient required for a person to be a ‘great writer’ is a ‘built-in, shockproof crap detector’. Postman ends by stating that ‘The new education…learning how to learn… has as its purpose…to help all students develop built-in, shockproof crap detectors as basic equipment in their survival kits’.

IMHO, crap detection is required to be an effective citizen in a healthy democracy. Fellow lifelong learners, I have some tools for you:

Howard Rheingold’s blog Crap Detection 101 is an excellent tutorial on crap detection. Rheingold makes the point that most of the books in the library are factually accurate, but you have no such assurance when you are on the web. You can protect yourself by learning how to separate the wheat from the chaff (my thanks to John the Baptist, Matthew 3:12), and this tutorial will help you. Look at the resources following, and add your own!

A healthy dose of skepticism will also serve you in this increasingly complex world. Cuddle up with Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World to learn the basics of the scientific method which can help you differentiate science from pseudoscience. Healthcare, global warming, swine flu, stem cell research, nuclear plants, sustainability, etc. etc. (the list could go on forever), all require knowledge—not just feelings--to make good decisions. Perhaps these two resources can guide you to being more knowledgeable.

And just for fun, want a quick quizzy (two minutes, max) to measure your science knowledge? Take the Pew Research Center interactive quiz. The Science Knowledge Quiz.
Enjoy your weekend!

Keeping Track of your Social Networks

The MakeUseOf post "20 Tips to Define and Manage Your Social Networks" by Mahendra Palsule gives useful strategies for managing multiple online networks. The post is organized in two parts and offers suggestions like these from part one :

• Visualize Your Social Map
• Define Your Target Audience
• Use a Password Manager
• Separate Private & Public Photo-Sharing
• Use One Social Bookmarking Site
• Use a Gravatar
• Use Social Surfing
• Integrate IM, Email, and Social Networking
• Use a Consistent Username
• Track Your Comments

Palsule also gives links to online tools to help the process. These strategies and tools should make social networking more manageable and less confusing/fatiguing. Happy networking!

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

Thurber Drug Store

Postcard Postmarked July 1909!

One hundred years ago this is what a Thurber post card looked like! This postcard is of the Thurber Drug Store. It was written in Thurber July 1, 1909 by J.E. M. to Mr. F. M. Marrs, Stephenville, Tex. He writes "All are well as usual. The photo is the Drug Store. See me at the corner. Yours, J.E.M." This photo is included in the online Dick Smith Library Cross Timbers Historic Images "Thurber Collection", as well as many other Thurber photos. From the library home page click on Cross Timbers Historic Images Project. Then use Thurber Collection as the search terms to find them all. Also be sure to visit the W.K. Gordon Center for Industrial History of Texas museum for a look into Thurber's history!

Book Sale TODAY!

Just a reminder that the Friends of the Dick Smith Library annual summer book sale is going on right NOW, Wednesday July 8, 2009, until 6 PM in the foyer of the Tarleton Center on campus. It's today only, so come on over and find some bargains, and help out your library at the same time!

Top Ten Tuesday – 10 Summer Reading Lists

I've been trying to come up with a Top Ten Reading list for the summer…and I can't seem to find just one. So I decided to share 10 READING LISTS. Hopefully one of these will suit you.

• Top 10 Summer Reads – Earth911.com – Even reading has turned green!
  
• Oprah's Summer Reading list – 25 books you can't put down
  
• Summer Reading, Beach books etc. by Barnes & Noble
  
• 13 Hottest Summer Reads – The Daily Beast
  
• Ten Books to read before they hit the big screen
  
• Nebraska Library Association – .pdf with books for children of all ages.
  
• National Endowment for the Humanities: Summer Favorites Reading List – Kindergarten to 12 grade
  
• The 10 Best summer Cookbooks of 2009 from NPR
  
• 2009 CSAF Reading List -selected by the Air Force Chief of Staff for service personnel
  
• Best Mystery, Crime Novels – for Summer Sleuths from NPR
  

There are LOTS of reading lists out there! I hope those listed above will give you some good ideas for a great summer read! Remember if the Dick Smith Library does not own a title you would like to read, we can inter-library loan it for you. Most ILL's only take about a week…and its FREE! More Information about our ILL Service is available @ http://www.tarleton.edu/~library/ill.html

Happy 4th of July!!

The library would like to wish everyone a fun and safe July 4th holiday weekend!
Here are some interesting facts about the 4th of July from the U.S. Census Bureau:

2.5 million -- In July 1776, the estimated number of people living in the newly independent nation.Source: Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970 <http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/statab.html>

304 million -- The nation’s population on this July Fourth.Source: Population clock <http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html>

More than 1 in 4 -- The chance that the hot dogs and pork sausages consumed on the Fourth of July originated in Iowa. The Hawkeye State was home to 17.6 million market hogs and pigs on March 1, 2008. This represents more than one-fourth of the nation’s total. North Carolina (9 million) and Minnesota (6.7 million) were the runners-up.Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service <http://www.nass.usda.gov>

6.8 billion pounds -- Total production of cattle and calves in Texas in 2007. Chances are good that the beef hot dogs, steaks and burgers on your backyard grill came from the Lone Star State, which accounted for about one-sixth of the nation’s total production. And if the beef did not come from Texas, it very well may have come from Nebraska (4.7 billion pounds) or Kansas (4.1 billion pounds).Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service <http://www.nass.usda.gov>

$107.2 billion -- Dollar value of trade last year between the United States and the United Kingdom, making the British, our adversary in 1776, our sixth-leading trading partner today.Sources: Foreign Trade Statistics <http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/highlights/top/top0712.html> <http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/www/>

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

Friends of the Library Book Sale

Mark your calendars! The Friends of the Dick Smith Library will hold their annual summer book sale Wednesday July 8, 2009 from 7:30 to 6 in the foyer of the Tarleton Center. The Friends have lots of items that have not been in previous sales, plus some that have.

The Friends began having book sales in 1992 and they are one of the major fundraisers for the group. The money is used to purchase items for the library that are not covered in the regular budget. Some of the items that have been purchased by the Friends include display cases, map case, artwork, furnishings for the Local History room, popular magazine subscriptions, mouse pads, flip video cameras, and many others.

Items included in the book sale largely come from donations. The library is not able to keep all donations....many are duplicates, some are outdated, and some are not appropriate for the collection. The gift items that are not added are given to the Friends for their book sale. We also give the Friends items that we withdraw from the collection because they are outdated or are duplicate copies.

We have come a long way! In 1902 the Stephenville Twentieth Century Club organized a book reception to benefit the John Tarleton Library. It was well received and more than 250 books were collected. "The bulletin for 1902-03 stated that the library held 1500 volumes of choice literature." Today we have over 280,000 items! (King, The Dick Smith Library: Into the Second Century, p.4)

The Friends of the Library annual book sale is well attended and popular with the Tarleton community as well as the Stephenville community. So come on over to the Tarleton Center Wednesday July 8 and find some bargains!

Trust not the Stars

Curses and muttered execrations! Have you found those lovely lines of stars rating movies/products/travel destinations/ restaurants, etc., etc., useful? Yes? ME, TOO!! I have relied on ratings and customer reviews to help me make purchasing decisions, but alas, no more. My gullible self recently got a reality check when I read The Perils of Five-Star Reviews from BBC News regarding 'shill reviews'.

Shill reviews are reviews that are not legitimately from customers, but self-serving reviews either paid for or written by those who have something to gain. Now one has to read even customer reviews with a critical eye. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is not a legitimate review. Read the article and learn how to be a more-informed consumer.

Lucky for you, the information you get at your library has been vetted, and found worthy. Start there first.

Top Ten Tuesday – 10 most visited National Parks

I need a vacation! (…don't we all?) I've always had a dream to visit all the National Parks in the U.S. I was doing some research and found a great Top Ten list! Here is data from the National Park Service. These were the 10 most visited National Parks in 2008.

• Great Smoky Mountains NP - 20,257,688
  
• Grand Canyon NP - 4,557,358
  
• Yellowstone NP - 3,979,371
  
• Olympic NP - 3,835,757
  
• Grand Teton NP - 3,829,002
  
• Yosemite NP - 3,618,395
  
• Hot Springs NP - 3,408,731
  
• Hawaii Volcanoes NP - 3,129,404
  
• Rocky Mountain NP - 2,914,252
  
• Saguaro NP - 2,787,595
  

I've been to 7 of them! We are so lucky to have such great public lands here in the U.S. Take a minute to think of not just the National Parks, but the National Seashores, Monuments, Historical Sites, etc that we can visit! Post a comment and tell us which National Park Service locations you have visited!

Understand your fellow Americans

Want to know about Americans? The Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends project studies behaviors and attitudes of Americans in key realms of their lives, including family, community, health, finance, work and leisure. The project explores these topics by combining original public opinion survey research with social, economic and demographic data analysis.

It is one of seven projects that make up the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan "fact tank" that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It does not take positions on policy issues.
Visit Pew Social and Demographic Trendsto learn a lot about Americans!

Search Engines Worth Checking Out

"Google is the most powerful search engine available, but when it comes to searching for something specific, Google may churn out general results." For more precise searching, a niche-specific search engine can be very useful.

To help us find these specialty search engines, the Hongkiat (Online Tips for Tech Users, Designers, Bloggers) blog has compiled and posted a list of 100+ Alternative Search Engines You Should Know About.

The search engines are grouped according to type, which makes choosing one that much easier. The categories include

• E-Book & PDF Search Engines
• Audio/Music Search Engines
• Video Search Engines
• RapidShare Search Engines

Happy searching!

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

Typical Texas Summertime Temperatures are Here!

Of course, air conditioning was not always available on the Tarleton campus. The photo above shows the "new" 1956 library's air conditioning unit - a "new" feature, when most buildings didn't have A/C! The library was one of the earliest buildings on campus to have air conditioning. Bender Hall, a men's dorm, went up in 1953, and even though it was advertised as the most modern in the state, it was not air conditioned, but had attic fans to provide some relief during hot weather. Ferguson Hall opened in the spring of 1959 and was also not air conditioned. A new health center went up in 1959 on the southeast corner of campus and was equipped with air conditioning. A new women's dorm was constructed in 1962, the first to have air conditioning. And, in 1964, the "new" student center (now the Tarleton Center) opened and became the "hub" of campus activities, housing the post office....recreation center....lounge area and snack bar....the Cave for dances and social gatherings....and it had air conditioning! (Guthrie, John Tarleton and His Legacy, p.116-117)

Just think about what it was like to be at Tarleton back then!